Even Barnacles Eating Our Plastic Trash

(Newser)
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Today's most unfortunate number: 267. That's the number of marine species that have been found to have eaten plastic, and a new study zeroes in on one such species— barnacles. Researchers traveled to the North Pacific Gyre (better known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) with a question: Are marine invertebrates eating plastic trash, too? LiveScience explains that the knowledge on the subject was fairly limited, with lab studies indicating the answer is "yes," but field research having revealed only three backbone-less species known to consume it.

And so researchers gathered 385 barnacles and zeroed in on their gastrointestinal tracts ... and found something there. "Microplastics," which LiveScience defines as small pieces winnowed down by the elements to sizes of less than 0.2 inches. Such particles were present in 33.5% of the barnacles' tracts; 44% of those had more than three particles there. So what does this mean? "The implications ... remain uncertain," write the study authors. They found no evidence of stomach or intestinal blockage, but the possibility exists that the particles could have an effect on barnacles' nutrition. What it won't have an effect on, notes LiveScience: the amount of plastic in the ocean. What barnacles eat, they eventually "poop out." (Read more Great Pacific Garbage Patch stories.)

There you have it, have the plastic manufacturers engineer in a toxic element that barnacles can't metabolize or pass. It would held reduce ship maintenance costs.

Lou Bernardo

Oct 25, 2013 11:08 AM CDT

Give them a few thousand years and the sea inhabitants will evolve so they only eat plastic. Unfortunately, buy that time there will be no humans left to make plastic waste.

GreekChorus

Oct 25, 2013 12:53 AM CDT

"What barnacles eat, they eventually 'poop out.'" Not really true. The actual chemicals/molecule types frequently differ. What isn't clear from this article is whether or not barnacles' digestive systems -- or any of the other 266 species' digestive systems in question -- change the chemical composition of the plastics. If they do, then we have the question as to whether or not those changes are beneficial or not. This sounds very much like hyping an issue as a problem when no problem has actually been identified.